The report did not indicate if it was a U.S. or Vietnamese mortar that exploded, killing four young children and injuring five other people. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that we someday wake up to the reality the costs of war linger for decades after most have forgotten the conflicts. For too many those costs are personal and lasting.

Delegates of School of Americas Watch, the military watchdog group founded by Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, met Tuesday with a senior White House official to discuss their longtime efforts to close a controversial U.S. military training school.

The delegates met with Denis McDonough, a Catholic who is a deputy national security adviser to President Obama.

They discussed closing the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, a U.S. Army training school located at Fort Benning, Ga, and formerly known as the School of the Americas.

At the 35th anniversary of the St. Louis Catholic Worker in September, one of our former workers, Patrick Coy, led a roundtable on nonviolent resistance. Pat is a conflict resolution professor at Kent State now, and he gave us thoughts to chew on.

"Us" was about 40 current and former workers plus extended community and volunteers. We met outside in a big circle in beautiful weather.

South Dakota's two Catholic bishops have called for a stay of all executions in their state and for the repeal of the death penalty, saying it "undermines the moral authority of our government."

"We call for a system of justice and reconciliation that is worthy of the values of the people of South Dakota," write Rapid City Bishop Robert Gruss and Sioux Falls Bishop Paul Swain, who released their statement Oct. 9, the feast day of Saint Denis, a martyr of the early church who was executed by beheading.

The chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' subcommittee on marriage described as "unjust and a great disappointment" the decision by a federal appeals court striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which says marriage is a legal union of a man and a woman.

"Redefining marriage never upholds the equal dignity of individuals because it contradicts basic human rights," said San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.